10 Holiday Makeup Hacks to Get You Party Ready

‘Tis the season for bringing your beauty A-game, and then turning it up some. But don’t think that you can’t rise to the level of bolder lips, smokier eyes and glitter in all the right places because you didn’t spend the whole year practicing like a pro. There are plenty of shortcuts to getting full-glam for the holidays fast, including tips for getting that makeup to stay just as fresh from the first ladle of hot cider ’til the punch bowl is bare, all without much extra effort. Consider these 10 party-worthy hacks your holiday makeup cheat sheet, from getting lips + eyes that wow in just one step to looking like a snow-kissed, Elsa-style princess, both with and without copious amounts of sparkle.

1. Stay-Put Glitter: The key to wearing glitter makeup like an adult is precise placement, so whether it’s meant to line your eyes or fall like sparkling snow from the bottom of your lids, you want it to look intentional. Make glitter explosions a thing of the past by applying an adhesive like Too Faced Shadow Insurance Glitter Glue ($20) to your face first. It’s an easy extra step that guarantees the specks will stay in place all night long. (via Nasty Gal Blog, Image via Fashion Gone Rogue)

2. Mistletoe-Proof Lipstick: It takes a little TLC to get long-lasting lip color, but once you memorize this three-step application, you’ll be out the door with a fully saturated kisser in five minutes flat. Build your color by applying a stain before lining the lips with liner and filling in with a lipstick. You’ll get the most milage out of a matte lipstick – leave the shine to all that sequins. (via Beauty High, Image via We Heart It)

3. One-Step Wow Lips: You’ve been prepping your lips all season with scrubs and balms, so why cover that pout in color when you can have snow-kissed lips in seconds flat? Frosted lips are the latest easy-to-wear beauty trend *if* you know how to style ’em. Here’s the trick: skip the shimmer elsewhere — go for a matte or smokey eye to contrast the frostbitten finish, which only requires a single swipe. (via Yahoo! Beauty, Image via Beauty High)

4. Make Metallics Pop: Gold and silver eyeshadows always look so much brighter in the palette than they do on the skin, both suited much more for making smokey eyes shimmer than popping on their own. Finally achieve a tinsel-style shine by investing in a high-coverage metallic liquid eyeliner, like Lime Crime Reason Silver Eyeliner ($22) that leaves a foil-like finish. (Image via OPSH)

6. Thicken Your Lashes: We don’t know about you, but we consider applying false lashes about as enjoyable as tweezing our brows, which is why discovering this lash-volumizing beauty hack completely changed our going out game. After you apply your first coat of mascara, brush on a thin layer of baby powder to thicken the lashes, then finish the look with a final swipe of mascara — you won’t believe the boost! (via Brit + Co, Image via Indulgy)

7. Plump Up Your Lips: Good news: A plump pout is fairly easy to fake, even if you have paper thin lips. The trick is to apply a light pencil to the center of your top and bottom lips, then outline the area with the same pencil. Continue lining with a slightly darker shade of liner, then blend towards the corners of your mouth before you finish with a gloss. (via Buzzfeed Life, Image via FMD)

8. Snow-proof Your Eye Makeup: Being prepared to brave the cold shouldn’t just include bundling up your neck and pulling on a beanie. Protect your eye makeup from the slushy elements and those wind-drawn tears by always, always, always using a waterproof mascara and always, always, always setting it with shadow. It’s an extra step that promotes a streak-free face year round — use the beauty hack to beat the summer heat, too! (via Brit + Co, Image via Jenny.gr)

9. Cat Eye Hack: A purrfect cat eye is hard to apply on the go if you haven’t been practicing your flick day in, day out. Avoid the frustration of epic liner fail by hacking your cat eye with office tape! Trace along the straight edge of the sticky supply to create perfect-every-time look. (via Cosmopolitan, Image via All Women Stalk)

10. Skip All The Eye Makeup: When there are just too many gifts to wrap and too many sugar cookies to frost, we get why you wouldn’t want to bother with dramatic makeup entirely — so don’t. No-makeup makeup is having a major moment, which means that even for the holidays, you can actually skip all the eye makeup and still pull off an enviable beauty look. Instead, concentrate on moisturizing your skin (a bit you should have down pat by now) and achieving a luminous glow with neutral shadow and subtle blush. (via Beauty High)

What beauty hacks are you planning on using this holiday? Tell us about what hair, skin and makeup tricks you use to get party-ready fast in the comments below.